Beginnings and Ends (7)

Kodak wakes up and immediately looks around himself, he's back in his room. 

He considers the deal with Kiko and wonders if he made the right decision about the conditions.

"(I hope this deal doesn't come to bite me in the ass.)"

While deeply regretting his decision Kodak gets out of bed regardless, but notices something different with his right hand, it has a symbol black diamond-shaped mark on the middle of his palm.

"(What the hell? Did she mark me after shaking hands, what a fucking creep.)"

Kodak hops in his new shower and thinks about that pale man he fought before Kuroi.

"(Who is he, what is he, and most importantly, is he a threat to me?)"

Kodak exits the shower, putting his school uniform on.

He opens the mirror and grabs some things, mainly electric clippers and scissors.

[30 Minutes Later...]

Kodak looked at his new hair, which was shorter but also easier to manage.

"(It's been a good year, but I love this mix of my hair having the short ends like a mullet, but the bulk and length of a wolfcut.)"

Kodak exits his room and joins the Tensai family for dinner.

"Oh wow, new haircut Kodak?"

Satsujin asks, slightly shocked by this new look.

"Well, I can't just keep it long and messy. It was a pain to wash and keep neat."

Kodak and Ashiro continue conversing with the others until Satsujin taps his glass.

"Kodak, since you'll be staying with us from now on, I expect you to consider us family, and we'll do the same."

"Thanks, Jin-san, I am truly thankful for your family's hospitality."

Kodak feels a buzzing notification from his phone.

"Aw crap, Ashiro we're gonna be late!"

Kodak runs out the door, forcefully eating the rest of his breakfast.

Ashiro jumps from his seat to run after Kodak

"H-hey wait up Kodak-San!"

Ashiro swiftly follows Kodak to Tōzai Gakuen. 

"Why... Did... you. run!"

"It could've taken us ten to fifteen minutes just to walk. So I decided to run."

Kodak holds up his phone, The time reads 7:50 AM.

"You could've just told me that Kodak!"

Ashiro shouts, visibly annoyed by Kodak's morning shenanigans. But he decides to drop the argument and walk to the school building.

As the doors open, Kodak sees some notable things. A reporter with her crew, asking harsh questions to Fumiko 

"I told for the last time I don't know about Kodak's family murder! Get that through your thick fucking skull-"

However, before she can finish her anger toward the crew, Kodak kicks the camera away. 

Shattering it completely and glaring at the crew.

"Piss off."

The news reporter backs off, and Kodak moves Fumiko behind his back to shield her from the crew's cruel questions.

Kodak directs his attention toward the female reporter, his eyes and overall intentions eluding a dangerous amount of bloodlust.

"Careful Kodak, or have you forgotten our deal?"

Kodak's bloodlust immediately subsides, not wanting to lose the deal against Kiko. 

"(Kiko?! What the hell are you doing in my head?)"

"Relax, I am merely talking to you through your subconscious."

"(Still, that's a breach of privacy in my opinion Kiko.)"

"Yeah, but you need to live a little."

"(By invading my privacy!?)"

Kodak feels something tug on his jacket. 

"(I'll talk later Kiko.)"

He looks behind him and sees Fumiko crying, her voice calls to him weakly.

"P-please K-Kodak, make them stop."

Fumiko bursts into even more tears, and Kodak's anger surges even greater.

"(DAMMIT CALM DOWN KODAK!)"

Kodak's tightly gripped hands released themselves, and his tone was calmer and focused.

He walks up to the reporter, her face plastered with a nervous tone.

"Why are you hassling and causing my friend to cry."

She looked at Kodak, his demeanor was calm and collected.

"We just want answers about the murders of Akuma Kawanari and Dal-Hee Kawanari."

Kodak takes a deep breath and exhales, calming himself.

"Cut the bullshit. You never wanted to get answers, you just wanted Fumiko to cause an outburst cause of her volatile emotions. If not her it was gonna be Kyoka Fujimoto."

The female reporter grits her teeth, her fists clenched tightly.

"(DAMMIT ALL, HOW DID THIS BRAT ABOUT THIS!)"

Kodak turned around and faced Fumiko. Tears streamed down her face and onto the school's tile floor.

Kodak's hand wipes the tears from Fumiko's face, his hands felt rough yet so gentle at the same time.

"Fumiko-San, are you okay?"

His voice was heart-warming and felt so damn comforting to her. 

Kodak listens to the students running through the hallway, their footsteps echo, overlapping each other. He could barely make out their conversations over each other, but one stood out to him.

"Maybe his father killed his mom and sister."

A vein pops through Kodak's jaw, his anger is about to explode, but he feels Fumiko grab his arm and hug him deeply.

His anger decompressed immediately from her warmth and kindness. Her body felt so comforting to hold in his arms. She looked up at him, his face was slightly blushing. 

"(Is he b-blushing!?)"

"Fumiko-Chan, I think we should leave this crowd."

He smirks at her, his face still a bit red. They walk through the crowd, everyone moving out of their way almost immediately.

"Thanks, Fumiko-Chan."

Kodak smiled toward Fumiko, his smile was so bright despite what transpired a few nights ago.

"It's nothing Kodak-Kun."

A worried voice calls to the two of them.

"Fumiko, Kodak! Are you two okay?!"

It was Kyoka, closely accompanied by Himari, Ashiro, and Kohaku. But they were asked many questions before Kodak or Fumiko could greet them.

"Kodak are you okay?"

"It is completely okay to mourn but you need to talk to us."

Kodak chuckles and puts up a hand, signaling them to stop.

"I am fine."

The other girls don't believe him at first but Ashiro jumps in to back up Kodak's response.

"I thought he'd be way sadder but to my surprise he's fine. Although you trained like hell yesterday, I had no idea you could overwhelm my dad one-on-one."

"Jin-San didn't make it easy though." 

Kodak thinks back to how Satsujin fought, his movements were simplistic but beautifully crafted.

Kyoka scoffs at Kodak's praise for Satsujin.

"I bet I could take him in a fight."

Kodak and Ashiro looked at Kyoka and then back at each other, trying not to laugh.

The school bell rings, and Kodak waves to each other.

"See y'all after classes."

Kodak walks down the hall, thinking about how much has changed in the past week.

"(Akuma and Mom died gruesomely and Father is gone. I learned that I have a hidden power deep within my body. I need to talk to Kiko when I have the chance.)"

Kodak enters the classroom, sitting down. His teacher questions him.

"Are you okay Kodak?"

He looks at his teacher confused.

"What do you mean?"

The teacher looks at Kodak for a moment but gets back to the lesson.

[A few hours later..]

Kodak walks down the hallway and thinks about whether he should talk with Kiko.

Ashiro shows up, greeting Kodak.

"What's up Kodak."

Ashiro says while putting his arm around Kodak.

Kodak chuckles and greets Ashiro.

"Oh, hey Ashiro."

The two of them start walking to their neighborhood, discussing how classes went until Fumiko and Kyoka interrupt their conversation.

"Oh, hey Fumiko-Chan."

Kodak waves to her. Fumiko waves back.

Ashiro nudges Kodak's shoulder.

"You're awkward when she's around bro."

Kodak grabs Ashiro and puts him into a headlock, his face slightly ticked off.

"Repeat that I dare you."

Ashiro slips through the grapple and tackles him.

"You're gonna have to try harder than that Kodak."

Ashiro's face was wearing a cocky grin.

The two of them hear Fumiko yell at them.

"WATCH OUT!"

Kodak and Ashiro looked to their left, a car was heading their way.

They jump over the car but it swerves and drives at them again.

Kodak jumps at the car and punches at the driver's windshield.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!"

Kodak screams at the driver, and he pulls him out of the car. 

He looks closer at the driver; his eyes widen and his teeth grit against each other.

It was the same man who killed his mother and raped his sister.

Kodak's grip tightens and his anger amplifies even more, Ashiro notices and pulls Kodak off the driver.

"Talk to me man, who is that?"

Ashiro asks, worried for his friend. Fumiko comes running over and looks at the man Kodak had just pulled out of the car.

"It's him, the murderer who killed Akuma and Dal-Hee!"

Kodak looks over, seeing the murderer run back into his car.

He powers on the car, the engine roars, and looks at a couple walking down the hill.

"NICE TRY YOU KAWANARI TRASH!"

Kodak looked at his mother and sister's murderer drove swiftly down the hill, he chased after him, and his legs moved quickly and desperately. It was like he had a newfound strength in his body, it was amazing.

He continued to run after the car, he looked to his right.

There was an abandoned building, and Kodak leaped through the air. The wind blew through his hair as he crashed through the windows, his body felt extremely light and agile. 

Kodak continues his speedy pursuit, jumping through another window. 

Fumiko & Ashiro run after Kodak, briefly seeing him crash through the building with an overly confident smile plastered across his face.

Fumiko smiled with thoughts of victory overwhelming her mind.

"GO GET HIM KODAK!"

Fumiko's cheering toward Kodak was only amplified when Kyoka, Ashiro, Kohaku, and Himari joined in.

Kodak hears everyone cheering for him, and an overwhelming surge of confidence motivates him to keep pursuing the killer.

Kodak's face focuses as he cuts the distance between him and the killer to less than half of what it was.

His confidence fuels him and he takes a leap of faith, his body flies through the air.

Memories of his mother and sister flood into his mind, he was going to make this bastard pay for what he did, he was going to right those undeserving wrongs.

Kodak lands on top of the car and begins to punch the front window of the car, but something is wrong. The exterior of the car felt off and Kodak couldn't shatter the frail-looking glass.

Kiko speaks to Kodak for a moment, to warn him. Her tone was shaken and fearful. 

"K-K-Kodak-San it's him."

Kodak thought for a moment why Kiko was so terrified, but he couldn't focus on her as the car was getting closer to Satsujin and Aiya. Kodak punches the window even harder, his knuckles start to bleed as skin tears off his hands with every punch. Kodak continues punching over and over, again and again. His punches get more vicious and violent with every strike. Desperation and fear of his loved ones dying begin to flood his mind, like a tornado tearing through a small town. Kodak punches once more, and hope begins to shine as the window cracks a little bit. He continues, not caring about what his body has to go through to break this stupid glass. Kodak then hears a loud crunch and the sound is swiftly followed by a sharp pain.

He looks down, his right hand is a mess, and the infrastructure of his knuckles is so beaten and battered.

He holds his hand in pain as the killer of his Mother and sister just laughs at him.

"HAHAHAHAHA!!! TO THINK THIS GENERATION OF KAWANARI HERITAGE COULDN'T USE REVENANT! YOU"RE SO PATHETIC, YOU'RE JUST TRASH! JUST LIKE YOUR FATHER!"

Kodak looks at the killer, first, he humiliates his sister. Brutally tortured and killed his mother. His father was the opposite of pathetic. Kodak's anger screams out toward the killer and he kicks the glass with an intent of bloodlust in his eyes.

The glass then shatters as Kodak jumps at the killer, punching and kicking him with all his might. A sensation flows through Kodak's right hand, he looks down at it.

The wounds are slowly closing up and repairing itself.

Kodak punches the killer once more but he hears yelling and before anything else passes through his mind, He feels something in his body screaming out to him to jump.

Kodak leaps out of the car and lands on the sidewalk, he looks to his right and sees the car crash into a small building. Fire spreads into the building and people run out, but Kodak gets a bad feeling.

He rushes into the building to look for any survivors, calling for anybody.

"HEY! IF THERE ARE ANY SURVIVORS YELL!"

Kodak listens for a moment and hears a voice yell out that he's heard before, it's Satsujin.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!"

Kodak runs through the building and turns the corner, seeing Satsujin screaming in a desperate attempt at protecting Aiya from the burning rubble of the building piled on top of him. 

"JIN-SAN!"

Kodak runs over to Satsujin and Aiya, and his legs suddenly collapse. 

"(W-what!? No no no no, not now, I can still help. Please, body don't fail me now!)"

Kodak's legs shake violently, his breath becomes short from the smoke in the building and his eyes begin to water from the harsh environment of the building hitting his eyes.

Kodak walks over to Satsujin and pulls Aiya out of the incoming rubble.

"Jin-San, as soon as I get her to the others. I'm coming back for you."

Satsujin chuckles, his smile empowers Kodak as he leaves with Aiya on his back.

Rubble continues to fall until one of Satsujin's legs collapses.

"URGH!" He grunts in pain, his left leg is barely holding on as he begins to lose consciousness.

Kodak sets Aiya down on the stretcher, before rushing back into the building with the firefighters yelling at him.

"HEY KID WHERE ARE YOU GOING!" Concerned for Kodak.

"MY FRIEND'S DAD IS STILL STUCK IN THERE!" 

Kodak runs through the building and finds Satsujin about to be crushed by the rubble on top of his shoulders.

"I'm here Jin-San!"

Satsujin's eyes meekly open, relief washes over him as Kodak shoves him out of the rubble and forces the burden of holding the rubble to himself.

"(Come on Kodak you got this!)" He thought to himself optimistically.

Kodak feels a surge of energy flowing through his body and throws the heavy rubble off his back and out a window.

Kodak gets up and runs with Satsujin out of the building, as he runs out his body starts to feel weak and he collapses completely on the ground.